A German in America

If you trained a dog to be able to walk on water,
there will be one who is envious and assume the animal to be hydrophobic.
Wenn man einen Hund so dressiert hat, dass er ueber das Wasser laufen kann,
gibt es bestimmt ein paar Neider, die das Tier fuer wasserscheu halten.
Berthold Brecht

December 2001

My foot hurts badly. Actually it started as a tiny pain spot which was not different then all the other
stiffness but now I start to worry. I hope I can go skiing tomorrow again.
Just got back from dinner (10:23pm) and I am badly tired. I am getting old. Damn this hurts. OK, lets focus on the good things. Got up at 7:30am was not that hard (I am pretty proud of myself). Then I had a breakfast which started with a pear on a bed of vanilla sauce. It looked pretty good. Nobody was around (except the two dogs, I got one head laid on my right shank, one on my left they were actually not begging for food but begging for petting) so I helped myself with coffee, then tried to eat a bit of the pear and suddenly recognizing that it was a cinnamon pear. Was quite a shock so early in the morning. Lets say this, it is not that I don't like cinnamon, its more that I HATE IT! Actually I don't hate it, I hate the necessity to puke which cinnamon causes me.
Anyhow, I didn't finish it but as Barbara stepped in and wished me a good morning I was kind enough to even finish the bite I had in my mouth. This is to understand as a proof of bravery.
(After recognizing that I don't like the pear - she was apparently too kind to ask - she started working in the kitchen and came back with a pancake with powder sugar in a raspberry sauce. I am not a breakfast guy at all;-<
I am too tired to extend this anymore. I had a wonderful day skiing the Mary Jane ski area (after renting snow blades and boots). Sunny sky the whole day, excellent snow (snowed 2 inches over the night). The runs are pretty easy, sometimes boring and more difficult means more hills on the run (don't like that that much). Due to the early season a few of the runs and lifts are closed but it is a nice skiing area anyway.
I confess, I left the ski area about 3pm because I tried to avoid the traffic... ok, I was totally exhausted. It took me all day to find the rhythm and then I was too tired to enjoy it. (Anyhow to find the rhythm is fun enough;-)
For dinner I had elk, this is really great stuff. Try the Watercreek restaurant in Winter Park (Elk au poivre if I remember correct). The bar was completely packed because Colorado was playing against Texas (football). Was nice watching the game, I still have no clue how it works, but this time it was easy because I just had to combine what was going on on the screen with the noise of the audience. I still have no clue, especially the on-screen-drawing of the commentators confuses me which is supposed to clarify the strategy and playing methods. If two circles go this way and the another circle is creating a barrier (I guess so), what are all the other guys for? Wouldn't it be easier though to just call anybody off the field who has obviously no reason to be there?
May the issue is that sport commentators (no matter what type of sport) are part of my incomprehensible-triplet. Sport commentators, Robin Williams and John (the guy who is working for the housekeeper company at our office building). In other words, all that what is making me think that I have no idea of the English language at all.
Anyhow, Colorado won, the elk was excellent and it started snowing. I really hope my foot... actually I would appreciate if my foot would detain me from being forced to go skiing again tomorrow.

My foot was fine this morning, a few minutes (while Barbara tried to convince me by offering at least 10 different possible dishes to eat something for breakfast) I thought I could also use the heavy snow fall as an excuse not to go skiing (my back, my shanks, my shoulders, my calfs, my mind).
Then I stood outside at the veranda looking over the landscape (and also counting in my mind over the expenses of this small trip) and decided to be NOT old and NOT tired and HAVING fun. Then I checked out at the Outpost carrying all my stuff back into the car and drove to the skiing area. While doing this the sun came out and it stopped snowing I really would have missed something:-)
This day I skied the Winter Park ski resort (which is beside Mary Jane). Took me one run to get back in the skier-mood. I got together with a group of four (I really don't remember their names, sorry). Gave them a few tips how to drive snow blades (it is easy to explain: don't try to hard). Then let them pay for a coffee, then ended up skiing with them. They knew about the area so I had a few nice runs through forest routes (a bit exhausting because once you loose your speed in the deep snow it is not that easy to get on with it again). I lost them on one of this runs.. actually it was intention. One of this guys really got annoying, I think he thought I was hiding on his girlfriend (actually she told me "he is NOT my boyfriend" as she get angry with him when he brought only four sodas at lunch;-) The day was to good to get ruined by a jealous guy.
I left the skiing area at 3:30pm, this time really to keep out of the traffic... well, it was a good reason.
I drove down the mountains (still sunny, a few clouds), traffic was quite heavy but actually without any jam. I returned the car, checked for a earlier flight, was none, called the first hotel I saw on the info screen and got picked up by a Days Inn bus. After having a shower I crossed the street for the one and only diner out here (only a bunch of hotels about 5 miles from the airport). Had a not-that-good dinner and went back to my room. Now I am sitting on the bed, just getting really surprised of a... "movie" on Cinemax (pay tv) this is RTL (German tv) Saturday night style. I love the storyboards, actually the dialog, of those movies (I don't like the pictures who are coming with those storyboards at all and have a hard time to keep watching again and again, really disgusting naked women and naked workout guys, I cannot stand it, they are so naked, and then they, so... anyhow).
It is not that easy to "talk" a reason to get two persons to have sex and the directors (and actors) of those movies, try to prove their artistic, intellectual spirit (and intention) by making the dialogs exactly as half as long as the reason the movie exists anyhow. (Ohhh, that is not possible, nobody has ever done that with an real-life erection, NO way... that hurts by only looking at it.) This time they are sleeping together because this way she proves herself that she is attracting other guys then her boyfriend (or husband). This is something she needs to prove to herself because she is a perfect shaped blonde with a pretty face who bnever had the pleasure to get any attracted man around her. Hehe, just a few minutes ago she started this session by asking him to be tender and now this... it doesn't look very tender to me... anyhow there is a basic coordination of the man's and the woman's pelvis required to make some kind of physical contact and what I see right now is not, don't know how he does that but she seems to enjoy it a lot. Must be the longest penis ever. Actually more some kind of remote penis. And there - what surprise - is the secret (female) observer... I am not a diviner but I am waiting for she starting... here we go, masturbating while standing in the door about two steps away from the table but undetected in one hand a plate in the other... well I have to watch my vocabulary. You know why I am commenting this? I think because it helps me controlling my hormones. I am a guy those movies are made for me;-)
Back from the vending machines. Back to A&E "The Lost Battalion". This is what guys like, first sex then war. Actually is there a movie which combines those things?

I am back. Flight was on time, the only thing worth to report is that I had to undress my shoes at the security check (actually it was my belt who caused the VERY sensitive sensor to beep but the checking unit responded to the sole of my shoes too). To undress your shoes was not that embarrassing (because a lot of people had to undress their shoes too) but I was for sure the only one who had socks with a hole over the second toe. See it like that, all the people who passed me while I had to wait until they x-rayed my shoes passed by grinning and for sure had a good day telling other people about the idiot standing their dressed in a suit with holes in his socks;-)

I hate long telephone conversations, actually I feel really committed after putting down the hand set and realizing that I had fun during the conversation. Anyhow I am looking forward to be not forced doing long telephone conversation, actually to not be forced to rely on that only.
Was at Marks house yesterday had dinner (fish and cuscus), Mark, Jimmy and me. Was really nice a four hour guy-talk. (Actually I made the mistake to tell Puca about that and she get reaaallly nosy. So what do guys talk about if they doing guy-talk. Easy to answer sport and ..., aehm, actually not that easy to explain. Lets say it like this: about sport and the other thing (actually calling it the "thing" gives you a quite good impression of topic and tendency:-). Well, yeah we had a lot of fun.

Here it is. I found a recipe against, well, against "overwhelming willingness", play Mine Sweeper. Had now a 2 hour session and only once completed the expert level, the only thing I thought about was a automated solution algorithm (thereby analyzing the game creation algorithm) and now after the two hours, I do not think of anything. Two weeks of Mine Sweeper... are there any championships I can participate?

What a nice December. Nearly 80 degrees (F) today, blue sky, sunshine and nearly no humidity. I cannot believe that I am supposed to return to 5 degrees (C), rain, fog and rain in two weeks.
Looking back (two weeks to go, actually 14 days, 1 hour, 54 minutes, I am supposed to look back) I feel myself supposed to say something. But obviously I have no idea what or how, but anyhow... I really don't know what to say. (But saying this in two sentences, I am really too eloquent.) Let's get back to work.

Yesterday we went to Tracey's and Christian's Christmas party, was nice. All around male an female models, musicians and model agents. Had a conversation with a guy named Adrian who found himself somehow lost because he belongs to none of those groups. I learned from a guy named Mark (Model agency owner) that he really wasn't able to eat the German specialty "Salad with Liver". I am a German and I think I was so far in any area of my home country, but I never heard or saw something like it or even similar to that. Even Germans are not that... ok, may we are, but I truly never have seen it nor ate it.
Highlight of the evening was Diana (as far as I remember). We met her in the Goldfish, actually Mark met her a few days ago on a party. One of this I-know-on-a-intellectual-level "woman" (those are not girls, no way:-). Anyhow she drank definitely too much and was complaining about the people around all the time. ("If I look at this girl, I can tell that she is not happy.", "How come?", "She is only living on her outside (she said that, I swear) she is not aware of her inner reality and therefore the people..." (I cannot remember the end of the sentence, but I think you know what I mean)".
Oh, yeah, and she asked me (third or fourth glass of wine) whether I like to "spoon" her. If you ever got such an offer from a drunken girl you may will say hell, yeah. If you don't like to, there is an easy way out. "Spoon you? What does that mean?" (and make a shiftless gesture, don't forget your mimic). She started to explain what it means ("Well if you take to spoons and lay them together.", "yees...?", "and now replace the spoons with human bodies...", "yeees....?", "... never mind":-) Two sentences later she forgot about it anyway:-)
Had a lot of fun there. Later Diana insisted to go (about midnight) so Mark she and me left the party to drive her to her car (and me to mine). Mark and I drove back to the party (in separated cars). Talked to Christian about her stay in Germany (this is the favorite topic of any American:-) she was in the opinion that she never met men so shy and cold and so nasty on the other hand (once started;-) then Germans. I doubt that (and told her). Therefore she illustrated her opinion with a bunch of examples (she was pretty drunken). Adrian, who stood beside us, told me that he cannot believe how I manage to make woman talk like that. I don't know either but remembering a few conversations I had, I have to agree. I left the party at 2:30am.

Ok, yesterday we were out at Stacey's Christmas party, good opportunity to give away the bottle of wine I bought for Puca while she was in the US as a (greatly appreciated) present. We left at 1am and went to Brits Christmas party, stayed there until 3am, I need some sleep.
Actually I wonder how many people travel to Germany without knowing anything about it. Last evening I talked to five different persons who are going to travel to good'ole until Christmas or shortly after New Year. I never met that much Americans at home, I wonder where they disappear.
AND: I went to the Bank Of America to wire my money back to my German account. Officially (info by the BoA agent) it will take 2 days to 3 weeks until the money hits the account. The destination account, the BoA will deduct the money as of today.
The issue is that in 3 weeks there will be no account they could re-deposit the money to. I rely on Murphy, you never make fun of money, any German knows that. And any German bogey knows that to. You hear me!?

Today I packed the first suitcase, actually I put some stuff in all of my suitcases, have no idea how I can get them all back to Germany.

I AM tired. I went to bed at 3:30am this morning.
OK, it was worth it but anyhow, I am too old for such entertainment. We (I will not specify that, later on Mark joined us, but to protect the privacy and the home-peace of married men, I have to be reticent about the identity of the other participants:-) started at the Landmark Diner having something to eat, then we went to the Pink Pony (this is actually a Sunday night tradition I will miss:-). Let me say this: if I compute correctly I spent $120 this is for sure, the highest amount I ever spend on a single night out. But it was great (I definitely lost my badisch attitude:-)

My money is transferred. I actually still do not believe it. I assumed the money transfer to take 2 weeks until they figure out that the deposit is impossible to process then transfer it back to the origin account, realizing that this account is no longer existing, or the account id is already reused by another account. Something like that. But in fact the international wiring took only three business days, I am impressed (and quite happy that it turns out to be so easy:-) (And also: the Bank of America took $40 for the transfer, the Deutsche Bank 24 took 15 Euro, makes a total of approx. $50, makes DM 115.)
Well actually I sat down to report about my hurting back, my lit roof of the mouth, headache and dizziness, usually you call it flu but I avoid to use this word because this may will remind the bacilli what they actually are supposed to be called (and be).
Mark forwarded me a mail from Diana (the girl we met at Thursday last week), this is the cite: "I was getting really happy toward the end! OOPS! Take care! Christopher was great to me-tell him thanks for being such a gentleman." Isn't that great, may I didn't get spooned but I am (at least) a gentleman:-)
AND: I was shopping today (saying goodbye to Linens'o Things:-) and totally got lost in the city. Actually I was going for the Toys'R Us near Lennox Square (what is easy to find because it is directly beside route 400. From Perimeter Mall I drove - somehow - the wrong direction (was so busy to avoid the traffic jam), turned around got back to the King & Queen buildings and from there I know how to get to 400. Unfortunately I forgot that there is no 400 south driveway (only north) so I followed the crowd all through Sandy Springs and Buckhead until I reached the Buckhead city center, then a right, saw the light (pretty proud of myself), entered the left turn rows (pretty cool from the very right lane over 7 lanes to the very left lane while shopping traffic, something like Frogger;-), waited for the signal to turn green and turned left, right on the 400 northbound, what is totally the wrong direction:-) One more U-turn at Sydney Marcus Blvd and back 400 south, exit, right, left, entered the parking lot and had a five minute entertainment in watching American "Ma's" trying to get "Pa's" SUV in parking lots which are only 3 meters wide and 5 meters deep.
AND: I didn't get what I was looking for. To be at least not going all this way for nothing I got a nice black panther for the little dragon (no rabbit this time).

Stefans building was on fire today. He got a call at about noon in the office. Our apartment home company informed him that his building was on fire so he went there to check it out. (Try this.)
Actually he was pretty lucky because it was only the rear part of the building which was totally burned down and the firefighter used the apartment of his neighbor on the other side of the hallway to get to the fire. Also he had no water damage at all. Anyhow, he has to move out because the building is no longer habitable. Daryl is trying her best to get my apartment ready for him (actually the contract is canceled with Saturday when I move out). Stefan has to move into a hotel today (AMLI will pay for it) he was allowed to enter his apartment for a few minutes (together with a firefighter) to get the most required/valuable stuff. Well, if you check out the article from CNN above, you will see it could have been worse for him. (And the article also proves that this is not Murphy's practice.)

Yesterday I had my goodbye party. Some kind of embarrassing. Nobody showed up then the guys from the office:-< (Jimmy is in Miami and most of the others I know in Atlanta are somehow with their families, I take this as an explanation:-)
Well, let me say this, at the end we were six guys and I - again - cannot list the names (except Mark) because this may will cause a hard time for committed or married people. As a result of the evening I know own a baseball hat with the slogan "Pervert" (which is blinking) and a lighter in the form of a female torso. Guess where you have to press and where the flame comes out:-)
Lighter, I got my official goodbye from the office today. My goodbye present was a quite cool lighter. That cool, that I think over to replace my Zippo lighter, which is with me since 10 years (actually not the same but always the same type), with it.
Sam, Stefan and I had a goodbye dinner at "Chris' and Ruth", hell expensive (and Sam paid again while I was at the restrooms even although I insisted that dinner is on me). That was the last steak with shrimps for a while:-<.

Here I am. Sitting at the Hartsfield airport and waiting for my flight boarding.
Was only partially successful. Could convince the lady at the check in to accept a third piece of luggage and a total weight of 117 pounds (70 allowed:-) without additional payment (I called Delta yesterday and asked for the rules, the agent told me that I will have to pay $110 for the additional piece of luggage). She inserted the official comment "according to current medallion mile status no additional payment" (and told me "this is as good as any other reason:-)") on the other hand I got no first class upgrade because even the first class is totally full (and I have again a restricted ticket which allows - actually - no upgrade).

In Atlanta it is now 9:10pm and here 3:10pm. Somehow my inner clock is still ticking in US time.

There is no such thing like total loss.
If you loose something you win something with it. Sometimes what you win it is not adequate for what you loose, therefore we say: life is not fair. Anyhow, it is on you to see what else you got with it and it is also on you to determine whether it is worth it, or not. In my case, it is totally worth it:-)
Maybe I am too optimistic, I couldn't care less. For sure I am too euphoric, I don't give a damn. Maybe I forgot about the fact that the blue sky is only blue because of the reflection of light in (or at?) our atmosphere, it is blue anyway. This year was... good. This word is the result of a 2 minute search for superlatives. There is no appropriate word. If you need to know, what the appropriate word is, check it out:-)
Welcome to the blue sky.
After reading it again and thinking... well anyhow, I will finish this diary by the 11th of January, this is the only appropriate date I can think of:-)